Altruistic Punishment in Children
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Authors
Sullivan, Erin L.
Issue Date
2010
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Why human beings choose to cooperate· and be nice to. others, even when such behavior
goes against their self-interest, is an unsolve~ question in psychology. Some theo~ies
suggest that we learn altruistic behaviors from society. Other theories suggest that we are
born with tendencies to behave altruistically. The current study investigated whether or
not young children display altruistic punishment and take a cost to themselves to punish a
third-party if given the opportunity to do so. If young children demonstrate these
tendencies, it is more likely that altruistic behaviors are biological in origin. Eighty-two
children aged 3 to 5 years-old were given an opportunity to eat broccoli. Some of these
children were told that the broccoli that they did not eat was going to go to ·a broccoliloving,
mean person. Some children were told that the broccoli they did not eat was not
going to any other person; the broccoli-loving, mean person had her own share of
broccoli. More children ate the broccoli when ifwas going to a broccoli-loving, mean
person; however, this only occurred with one of the two mean people in the study. Pilot
data for a second study were collected that suggested that the finding that the children ate
more broccoli that was going to someone else was not a display of altruistic punishment,
but instead perhaps driven by scarce resource competition or an unexplained particular
dislike of one of the actresses who played the mean character in the study.
Description
vi, 32 p.
Citation
Publisher
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.